Chumpos - Koh Tao

It seems that I don't have to go to Surat Thani if I want to go to the islands. There's also boats going from Chumpos to Koh Tao. So I'm going to go first through Chumpos to Koh Tao and go to scuba diving course there and after a week or something go to Koh Phangan. They are selling bus+ferry tickets to Koh Tao in Bangkok's Koh Sao Road (or something like that), which is the center of tourism in BKK. This kind of combined ticket should cost around 8-10euros. I wonder if the Thailand's state bus travels between Bangkok and Chumpos and I could book bus+ferry by myself.

Why is everything called Koh this Koh that?? Maybe I should change my name to Koh Timo to get the maximum respect..

Tentative plans for Thailand and Malaysia

So here is my tentative plan for travelling around SE-Asia. I have already reserved a flight from Singapore to Bangkok with AirAsia. Made a booking online and the flight cost 50 euros with all the taxes.

I'm going to spend a one night in the Singapore before the departure. The reason for my short visit is that Singapore is a way more expensive compared to Thailand or Malaysia and nothing special to see there anyways. Well atleast that's what I've heard.

In Bangkok I'm going to spend few days depending how do I like it there. From Bangkok I'll take a bus or a train to Surat Thani which is a place where ferries to Ko Samui operate. I won't probably stay in Ko Samui for long but going to head towards Ko Pha-Ngan which is famous about the full moon party. There's going to be a party on 14th January so that's the day when I'm going to be there for sure. I'm also going to go to Koh Tao which should be a great place for doing some scuba diving. Going to do atleast open water diver course and hopefully advanced open water diver course as well. It's around 300 euros for both courses which is a way more cheaper than in Australia and especially than here in Finland.

In the 19th-20th January I'm probably leaving Thailand towards Malaysia and Kuala Lumpur. It would be a great to spend a weekend there, because I've heard that it's nightlife is quite good. Nightlife or not, seeing even the basic tourist attractions would take more than a one day.

My flight from Singapore to Bali leaves on 25th of January so I have few days to get myself from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore via bus/train. It would be enough, hopefully...

Organizing

31/12/2005 HEL-FRA, 31/12/2005 FRA-SIN, 25/1/2006 SIN-DPS, 12/2/2006 DPS-SYD

That's my route to Australia. Note my date of departure, which means that I'm going to change my year in the plane :). Which also means I'm getting new experiences from the early beginning of the journey and I'm sure I'm gonna enjoy drinking champagne 35000feet above the ground.
I'm going to fly through Germany to Singapore and my next flight is going to leave after 3 weeks from Singapore to Bali so I have some time to travel in Thailand as well. In Bali I'm going to stay for a bit over 2 weeks and then leave to Australia for good.

Needless to say that my study motivation went a way down towards zero after the reservation of flights. Well 2 more months studying left and 3 months until the journey. Still more organizing to do...

And about the picture:
I'm sure you all know where Germany, Singapore or even Bali is but I've always wanted to draw my own travel route to a World map with a red color like they did in Indiana Jones.

Accepted

Today I got a long waited e-mail from international office. They offered me a whole year exchange place in the University of Newcastle in Australia. I had a plan to study only one semester and spend the rest of the year travelling around pacific. Luckily studying for one semester was ok for international office as well, even though people usually spend a year studying. I will be on my way to Australia in the beginning of 2006.

There was 20 applicants to Australia's exchange program and 8 were accepted. My hard studying during the last year now really paid off. Managed to get my GPA a good way up. Now I don't have to pay any semester fees in Australia and I'm getting 1900 euros as a scholarship for studying for a semester. Those who study a whole year can apply for 2400 euros scholarship. If I wouldn't have been chosen, I could have applied straight to one of the Australia's universities and still got the scholarship. I would only had to pay half of the semester fees by myself.

Tampere University of Technology offered two exchange places in all of these Australia's universities: Griffith University, Bond University, University of Newcastle, Canberra University. Which sums up to 8 places in total.

The reason for taking only one semester was that there's a problem between studying and travelling. It's really hard taking part to the lessons when you're 1000+ kilometers away and even if you get 2 weeks off you will only see a scratch of the massive continent. Now I'm able to travel without strict timetables and that's what I have never experienced before. Anyways, I'm glad that I got accepted. Now I have a good excuse to go to the journey of my life. The journey to the other side of the globe.